Brigid Collins
Artist and Educator
That description is an inexact, loving art, and a reflexive one; when we describe the world we come closer to saying what we are…
Mark Doty, in Still Life With Oysters and Lemons (Beacon Press, 2001)
I am a Visual Artist. This is how I describe my practice. I also describe my practice as being that of maker, educator, book artist, depending on context. In truth, being a self-employed artist results in having interrelated roles.
My main concern is in bringing my attention and sensitivity to the natural world we inhabit, both in detail and in general, in microcosm and macrocosm. My practice increasingly centres around an imbuement in wonder, in and through the intermediary of a garden, primarily using inks and watercolours, in drawings, paintings and book forms. As Artist in Residence at Dr. Neil’s Garden (2021-22) an interdisciplinary discourse emerged between myself and poet, Christine De Luca, resulting in an exhibition, short film and website, supported financially by The Templeton Religion Trust, The School of Divinity, New College at The University of Edinburgh and The Hope-Scott Trust. A book, Such Fragile Futures: An Artist and a Poet Reflect in a Garden and an accompanying booklet, written as meditative observations by Dr Kitty Wheater, Mindfulness Chaplain at The University of Edinburgh, have since both been published by Main Point Books, Edinburgh and feature in The Edinburgh International Book Festival 2026 programme.
See NEWS, PUBLICATIONS, GALLERIES and SUCH FRAGILE FUTURES for full details.
In responding to this garden and its wider setting by paying close attention, I continue to look deeply into how this urban haven and the species with whom the space is shared feed a vital and growing sensitivity towards our mutual and fragile futures. For it is here Christine and I experienced a reciprocity that is both intimate and wide-reaching – between artist and poet, plants and poems, ourselves and plants and all of the species – accompanied by a deep sense of restoration in the natural world, a profound connection made through paying attention and the transformative power of awe.
As part of my practice, I have been lucky enough to have experienced fruitful creative collaborations with poets including the late Nobel Laureate, Seamus Heaney, Kathleen Jamie, a recent Makar for Scotland and Christine De Luca, a past Edinburgh Makar, along with a collaboration with author Kirsty Gunn. Each one of these collaborations has resulted in the publication of a beautiful book.
Since my creative collaboration with poet, Kathleen Jamie, which led to the publication of an online essay in GRANTA and a beautiful book, ‘Frissure’ (see GALLERIES and PUBLICATIONS), I have increasingly ventured outdoors with my work, widening not only the range my materials but the scope of my practice. It would not be an understatement to say that process of working ‘en plein air’ has revolutionised my practice while allowing me to become deeply rooted in place through close, tender and direct observation of the natural world. By engaging all of my senses in what has become a regular practice as crucial to my life as to my art, I have learned to truly see, and am changed…
As poet Mark Doty writes, in Still Life With Oysters and Lemon
(Beacon Press, 2001):
We think that to find ourselves we need to turn inward…but “I” is just as much to be found in the world; looking outward, we experience the one who does the seeing. Say what you see and you experience yourself through your style of seeing and saying…What is documented, at last, is not the thing itself but the way of seeing – the object infused with the subject.
Galleries
Please get in touch using the contact form to make enquiries about purchasing original pieces of work, or beautiful Giclee prints, which are available in limited editions, or to commission a new artwork.
News
Meet the Authors Free Event and Book Launch
Such Fragile Futures An Artist and a Poet Reflect in a Garden Brigid Collins and Christine De Luca Dr. Neil’s Garden in Edinburgh is an urban haven, a place that has something to tell us about all places. With delicacy and tender attention, artist Brigid Collins and...
‘Sparkle Returns’: An Exhibition at Thomson’s Tower in Dr. Neil’s Garden, Edinburgh
'Sparkle Returns': An Exhibition at Thomson's Tower in Dr. Neil's Garden, EdinburghSaturday 29th June - Friday, 5th July (10am-4pm) I'll be showing a not previously exhibited small series of soft pastel drawings - with original artworks, cards and limited edition...
Wintering Out…Meaning-Making in Nature
Days of Drawing, Reading and Reflection at Dr. Neil’s Garden Saturdays 20th January, 17th February and 16th March from 10am to 3pm Fee: £250 for all of the days(Includes a donation to the garden) “O Wind, If winter comes, can spring be far behind” So ends the poem Ode...